favorite recipes from a Northwest kitchen

Tag Archives: salad

Once upon a time, there was cream, or sour cream, or at least plain yogurt. But in recent months, as we started eating more plant-based meals and those ingredients grew sparser in my fridge, I wistfully said goodbye to creamy, luscious sauces.I was a fool! As you probably know, and I have now learned, it turns out that creamy vegan sauces require only selecting the right ingredients–like in this walnut sauce, this creamy sweet corn sauce, this tahini sauce–and I haven’t even tried the cashew cream trick yet.

Today’s herb-packed, lemony avocado dressing takes five minutes to make, and tastes like an indulgence of a much greater magnitude. Pour it over a crisp summer salad, and you’ll never miss buttermilk dressing again.Help me out, readers: What other tricks am I missing for creating decadent, creamy, whole-foods, plant-based deliciousness?

I came home from our trip to a fridge full of winter squash, and I’ve been roasting my way through it ever since. One batch I quite liked was a sugar pie pumpkin drizzled with olive oil, maple syrup, and ancho chile powder, roasted in wedges until caramelized and sticky.The leftovers went into a green salad the next day–really, any roasted winter squash chunks would have been good–with thin slices of sweet, crisp apple and red onion. A grainy mustard vinaigrette with honey fit the sweet-savory-sweet-savory pattern nicely. Hello, lunch for a sunny autumn day.

What food do you take travelling? Airport and roadside offerings are universally dire, as far as I can tell, so we usually try to think ahead and pack food to sustain our family on travel days.

Today was a travel day. We’ve been in California, visiting my family (including my 98-year-old grandfather), soaking up sunshine. We headed home tonight on a late flight with three sleepy children, a suitcase full of new crop walnuts, and this salad.Continue reading →

Today J picked the apples from our three backyard trees. It’s been a good year for the apples, and box after box came inside. Red, crisp, sweet. Hundreds of apples. The big girls posed proudly for a photo in front of the pile. The baby held an apple in each hand and seriously applied herself to the task of trading off bites.

Our plan to make applesauce all day went out the window, the boxes went to the cool basement, and now every time I go downstairs the sweet smell of fall wraps around me. One day soon we’ll be making a year’s worth of applesauce, but today we settled for a enjoying just a taste of the season’s bounty in our salad.Continue reading →

I have been having a bit of a love affair with this salad this summer.We met casually, in a friend’s back yard. I couldn’t stay away from it, and then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Our friends came to the Dinner in White and I casually mentioned that they might bring this salad, you know, if they wanted. They did. I sat next to it at the table.

It’s been on my mind ever since. Today, by some stroke of luck, J was working from home, the baby was napping, and the older girls weren’t home yet. We took full advantage of that rare quiet moment together. By grilling a bunch of curly kale and having this salad for lunch.

I’m sorry I’ve kept it from you for so long, but it’s not too late. Clear your calendar of any other rendezvous you’ve planned. You too will fall in love with this salad this weekend.Continue reading →

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